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Conditional sentences in Chinese: If I were... I would...

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:09 pm
by Anatoli
Can someone give a few examples of sentences like:

If I were you I wouldn't do it.

I need not a real condition (If the weather IS fine) but unreal (If the weather WERE fine).

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 5:36 pm
by Rhin
Hi

If I were you I wouldn't do this.

如果我是你(的话), 我不会这样做.

The words in brackets are optional.

If = 如果
我 = I
是你 = were/am you
不会 = would not (in this context)
这样做 = do this

There are many Chinese equivalents of "if", like “如果“, ”倘若“, “要是”, and they basically mean the same thing.

In Chinese there is no distinction between (If the weather IS fine) and (If the weather WERE fine).

It is 如果天气好(的话) for either case.

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:38 pm
by Anatoli
Rhin wrote:Hi

If I were you I wouldn't do this.

如果我是你(的话), 我不会这样做.

The words in brackets are optional.

If = 如果
我 = I
是你 = were/am you
不会 = would not (in this context)
这样做 = do this

There are many Chinese equivalents of "if", like “如果“, ”倘若“, “要是”, and they basically mean the same thing.

In Chinese there is no distinction between (If the weather IS fine) and (If the weather WERE fine).

It is 如果天气好(的话) for either case.
Thanks very much, Rhin.

If there is no distinction between a real and an unreal condition, how do you distinguish between, say - I WILL NOT do this and I WOULD NOT do this. I understand there are no grammatical moods in Chinese as in European languages. The reason I am asking is I have to explain the reverse - this usage of WERE and WOULD to my Chinese penpal and a similar construct in Russian.

Thanks in advance.

Anatoli

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 9:01 am
by Rhin
Hi Anatoli

Distinguishing between "I WILL NOT do this" and "I WOULD NOT do this" is mainly based upon context.

For "will", since it's saying what you will do in the future, mavbe can add a "将" in front of the sentence. eg. 我(将)不会这么做。 But, it seems a little redundant...

Hope that's helpful.

Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:48 am
by Anatoli
Rhin wrote:Hi Anatoli

Distinguishing between "I WILL NOT do this" and "I WOULD NOT do this" is mainly based upon context.

For "will", since it's saying what you will do in the future, mavbe can add a "将" in front of the sentence. eg. 我(将)不会这么做。 But, it seems a little redundant...

Hope that's helpful.
Thank you, Rhin Somehow, I don't get notifications from this forum and I didn't know you answered.

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:53 pm
by cake
WELL...................it's a intricate question.
when a sentence ues will,,,,,,,yehh, it means it will be happen,but not already happen or is happenning,,,,,in chinese we use "将" instead of
"will",,,
whatsmore "将"in chinese usually can be understand us "将来"(future),
but ,,,,,,,,,,(it is very important),in chinese ,people ususlly dont use"将"to express sth will happen,,,,,,,(though it means so),,we will use other thing, e.g. the whole context,,or some pronoun of time ,like tomorrow ,,next year,,,
ok ,,,,,,,just take it easy,,,,,,,,u can understand it when u speaking,

i feel so luck that so many kindhearted people help me when i learn english, so now, if u wanna help of learning chinese, maybe i can help u

hope my english is not so poor for u to read,
good luck